Peebles · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Peebles workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Peebles
Peebles is a Royal Burgh on the River Tweed in the heart of the Scottish Borders, home to around 8,400 people. A former woollen-mill town, it is known for its award-winning independent High Street and the tweed and knitwear trade that grew up along the river.
Its working units - textile finishers, joiners, engineers and food producers - cluster on South Parks Industrial Estate and the Eshiels site north of the A72, and each one that runs a process throwing off dust, fume or mist needs local exhaust ventilation that actually works.
Wherever a Peebles process releases fume, dust, mist or vapour, COSHH puts the duty on you to control it at source, and the extraction that does so is LEV - subject to a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months. We work across the range, from the South Parks units down to the smallest Peebles workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Peebles and the wider the Scottish Borders it is your evidence under COSHH.
Dust and fibre extraction on carding, spinning and finishing lines that carry on the Borders tweed and knitwear tradition rooted around March Street. LEV keeps respirable fibre and process dust off the shop floor and tested to the standard COSHH sets.
Fine-dust capture on saws, sanders and routers in Peebles joinery and cabinet shops. Hardwood dust is a recognised carcinogen, so extraction at each machine and the ductwork behind it are checked for airflow.
Flour-dust and steam extraction in the town's bakeries and food units. Airborne flour is a leading cause of occupational asthma, so local exhaust over mixing and sieving is measured against its design airflow.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the South Parks and Eshiels units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Peebles bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for Borders College and Borders General Hospital at Melrose, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Peebles
We are out under Peebles's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A fabrication shop in Peebles had face velocity across its welding-bench extract arms reading low, traced to a build-up of debris in the ducting. We checked static pressure across the arms, cleared the ducting and inspected the fan and filter, then re-tested each point against benchmark. The LEV passed on re-test across the bench-capture hoods, and we issued a signed LEV report.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Peebles system it has to establish three things - that the plant and ductwork are sound, that the hoods still capture, and that the capture still meets the figure the system was designed around.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the South Parks units - the faults that quietly kill capture.
Face and capture velocities, static pressures and airflows measured at each hood with calibrated instruments - numbers, not opinion.
Readings compared to the system's commissioning figures, so drift from as-designed is caught before it becomes a failure on a Peebles line.
Where exposure is in question - a textile and knitwear finishing process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 puts a hard duty on the employer: any LEV controlling a hazardous substance must have a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, with records kept for five years.
On most Peebles sites - the South Parks units and the smaller workshops alike - it is the fourteen-month clock that bites: let it lapse and the system is non-compliant that day, however well it seems to run. We examine it, tag each hood with its status and next-due date, and hand over the report an HSE inspector or insurer will want. Where something fails you get the reading, the cause and the remedy - never just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Peebles site.
Calibrated velocity, pressure and airflow readings at each extraction point.
A COSHH-compliant report: results against benchmark, clear pass or fail, and plain-English actions for the Peebles duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Eshiels floor.
Questions
Under COSHH Regulation 9, most local exhaust ventilation needs a thorough examination and test at least every 14 months, with higher-risk processes more often. A textile and knitwear finishing bay, a joinery and woodworking bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around South Parks and Eshiels, the university and hospital labs, and the wider the Scottish Borders.
textile and knitwear finishing, joinery, bakeries and food production, welding, vehicle paint and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around South Parks and Eshiels and across the wider the Scottish Borders.
A dated report to the HSG258 method, the readings taken, a pass or remedial outcome for each hood, and system labelling - the evidence a duty-holder at South Parks or a smaller Peebles workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the South Parks units, term-time access at the Peebles university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Peebles workshop needs a commissioning test to prove it performs to its design figures before it goes into service - we measure it and document the baseline the 14-month clock then runs from.
Yes. Each hood is labelled with its status and next-due date, and you get the HSG258 report and system schematic for your COSHH file - the record an HSE inspector visiting a South Parks unit will ask to see.
Local knowledge
The David Ballantyne company opened March Street Mills in 1884, and for well over a century Peebles ran on wool - carding, spinning and weaving Borders tweed until the last mill closed in 2015. That heritage of dust-laden machinery still shapes the town's workshops. Wherever a modern process throws off fibre, wood dust or metal fume, we design and test the local exhaust ventilation that pulls it clear of the operator and proves, on paper, that it works.
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